•  4
    Avicenna and Spinoza on Essence and Existence
    In Yitzhak Y. Melamed (ed.), A Companion to Spinoza, Wiley. 2021.
    This chapter shows even tighter textual and conceptual connections between these philosophers, delineating how Spinoza drew from Avicenna on the definition of essence and the essence/existence distinction. Spinoza departs from Avicenna, potentially regarding the tendency of essences for existence and especially regarding their universality and particularity. Multiple doses of Avicennianism likely made their way into Spinoza's bloodstream. Avicenna's Najāt and the IP are the most likely sources f…Read more
  •  2
    Avicenna and Spinoza on Essence and Existence
    In Yitzhak Y. Melamed (ed.), Blackwell Companion to Spinoza, Blackwell. pp. 30-40. 2021.
    Spinoza’s employment of essence and existence is well-known. Though there are precursors to Avicenna for the essence/existence distinction, it is Avicenna who firmly establishes it and many of the surrounding arguments for the rest of the Islamic, Jewish, and Christian traditions. Although there are myriad possible links, it is worth considering how Avicenna himself factors into Spinoza’s views since he is the major source for this tradition. I aim to show even tighter textual and conceptual con…Read more
  •  40
    Joanna Crosby and Dianna Taylor: The theme of this special section of Foucault Studies, “Foucauldian Spaces,” emerged out of the 2016 meeting of the Foucault Circle, where the four of you were participants. Each of the three individual papers contained in the special section critically deploys and/or reconceptualizes an aspect of Foucault’s work that engages and offers particular insight into the construction, experience, and utilization of space. We’d like to ask the four of you to reflect on w…Read more
  •  19
    Averroes on Intellect provides a detailed analysis of the Muslim philosopher Averroes 's notorious unicity thesis -- the view that there is only one separate and eternal intellect for all human beings. It focuses directly on Averroes' arguments, both from the text of Aristotle's De Anima and, more importantly, his own philosophical arguments in the Long Commentary on the De Anima. Stephen Ogden defends Averroes' interpretation of De Anima using a combination of Greek, Arabic, Latin, and contempo…Read more
  •  1
    Ibn Rushd and Aquinas on God's Causal Omniscience
    The Muslim World 109 (4): 595-614. 2019.
    In this article, I argue that Ibn Rushd’s view of God’s causal omniscience (and attendant ideas of God's knowledge as neither universal nor particular) is not a ruse but is rather defensible. I consider the primary problematic evidence in The Decisive Treatise and the Long Commentary on Metaphysics, but suggest it must be understood in light of other passages in the Incoherence of the Incoherence and also a strong doctrine of divine simplicity. In fact, Averroes's view is in substantial agreemen…Read more
  •  40
    Averroes’s Unity Argument Against Multiple Intellects
    Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 103 (3): 429-454. 2021.
    Averroes is well-known for his controversial thesis that there is only one separate intellect for all humankind. This article provides a detailed analysis of Averroes’s Unity Argument from his Long Commentary on De Anima, which argues from unified intelligible concepts to a single transcendent intellect. I set out the Unity Argument in its textual and philosophical context, explain exactly how the argument works on a new interpretation of its infinite regress, and offer some brief suggestions as…Read more
  •  23
    On a Possible Argument for Averroes's Single Separate Intellect
    Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy 4 (1). 2016.
    Averroes held the controversial thesis that there is only one separate material or possible intellect for all humans. This paper analyzes a passage from his Long Commentary on the De Anima which has been thought to constitute a primary philosophical argument for the view. It is called the Determinate Particular Argument, because it contends that the material intellect cannot be a determinate particular if it is to be the ontological receptacle of universal intelligible forms. After defending one…Read more
  •  43
    Avicenna's Emanated Abstraction
    Philosophers' Imprint 20 (10). 2020.
    One of the largest ongoing debates in scholarship on Avicenna concerns his epistemology of the first acquisition of intelligible forms or concepts. “Emanationists” hold that intelligibles are emanated by the separate Active Intellect directly into human minds. “ionists” hold that intelligibles are abstracted by the human intellect from sensory images. Neither of these positions has a satisfactory grip on Avicenna’s philosophy. I propose that the two positions can be reconciled because Avicenna s…Read more
  •  16
    Interpreting Averroes: Critical Essays ed. by Peter Adamson and Matteo Di Giovanni (review)
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 57 (4): 751-752. 2019.
    For a philosopher whose moniker became "the Commentator" in recognition of his work on Aristotle, it is unfortunate how relatively few book-length commentaries and collections exist on Averroes. This volume is thus a welcome and overall excellent scholarly offering on Averroes's own significant intellectual achievements—from logic to law, and medicine to metaphysics, all expounded by major experts. The editors pursue the laudable goal to furnish "a well-rounded portrait of Averroes's thought" wi…Read more